Philosophy of Religion
Midterm Exam Questions
Phil 131
Dr. McCormick
The midterm exam will be on Monday, March 17th in class. Bring a blue book. The test will be closed book and closed notes. No cheating of any sort will be tolerated.
Part I: Vocabulary Terms 15 points
You will be given 5 to 8 of these terms and asked to give: A) a short (one sentence) definition, B) A relevant example of the term, C) the relevant philosopher (if there is one) for the term.
a priori
a posteriori
cosmological argument
teleological argument
natural selection
Darwin
laws of nature
natural possibility
logical possibility
Hilbert's Hotel
potentially infinite set
actually infinite set
reductio ad absurdum proofs
theism
atheism
agnosticism
religious attitude
natural theology
regularities of co-presence
regularities of succession
moral realism
strong anthropic principle
weak anthropic principle
Texas sharpshooter’s fallacy
veneer theory
Russian doll model
atheistic single-universe hypothesis
many-universes hypothesis
Part II: Identify the Author 15 points
You will be given a list of quotes from philosophers we have studied so far and asked to identify who wrote it. They are:
Richard Swinburne
William Lane Craig
Robin Collins
Victor Stenger
Steven Weinberg
Paul Kurtz
Wes Morriston
Steven Jay Gould
Plato
Stephen Pinker
Frans De Waal
Part III: Essay Questions 70 points
You will be given 4 of these questions and asked to answer 3 of them. Since the section is worth the most points, you should focus most of your time here. The best answers will be careful and thorough.
1. What Socrates’ argument and thesis about the relationship to God and goodness in the Euthyphro dialogue. How is it relevant to those who claim that God is the only source of morality?
2. What is Kurtz’s view of the claim that God and religion are the only source of morality? What can religion do for us on his view? Critically evaluate his argument.
3. What reasons does Gould give in favor of the NOMA view of science and religion? Critically evaluate his position.
4. What is the analogical argument from designed that we considered? Reconstruct and evaluate it.
5. What is natural selection and how is it relevant to teleological arguments?
6. Why is it probable that God created the universe according to Swinburne? Evaluate this argument in light of criticisms we considered in class.
7. The claim that God’s nature is beyond our comprehension generates a number of problems. Describe the position and explain the problems with it.
8. Explain Craig's Kalam argument for the existence of God. What is the Hilbert's Hotel example intended to demonstrate? How does it support his central argument?
9. What are the challenges that the Kalaam argument has to prove the existence of God.
10. In the Kalaam argument, what is the argument based on the impossibility of an actual infinite? How does that support the conclusion that God exists? Critically evaluate this argument.
11. What is Robin Collins’ answer to the multiple universe hypothesis as an objection to his Fine Tuning Argument for God’s existence? Is his answer adequate?
12. Stenger says, “Within the framework of established knowledge of physics and cosmology, our universe could be one of many in an infinite super universe or "multiverse" (Linde 1994). Each universe within the multiverse can have a different set of constants and physical laws. . . our universe is one of those expanding bubbles, the product of a single monkey banging away at the keys of a single word processor.” How is this answer to design arguments according to Stenger? Is it an adequate answer?
13. Weinberg says, “A journalist who has been assigned to interview lottery winners may come to feel that some special providence has been at work on their behalf, but he should keep in mind the much larger number of lottery players whom he is not interviewing because they haven't won anything. Thus, to judge whether our lives show evidence for a benevolent designer, we have not only to ask whether life is better than would be expected in any case from what we know about natural selection, but we need also to take into account the bias introduced by the fact that it is we who are thinking about the problem.” How is this a criticism on teleological arguments? Do advocates of the argument have a response?
14. In what sense is Steven Pinker a moral realist? How does this position address the question of God’s relationship to morality?